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Dubai: LG Electronics has said that 60 per cent of the mobile phone demand comes from simple phones rather than the complicated ones.
"A majority of customers just want to make calls and send SMS and even the use of cameras in handsets are minimum," K. W. Kim, president and chief executive of LG Electronics Middle East and Africa Regional Company, said.
He said Nokia is dominating this segment and it is very difficult for vendors to compete with Nokia. "So we have shifted our focus and would like to offer some thing different to customers. We are not concentrating more on volumes or rankings this year," he said.
"Till last year, we used to sell what the group develops. But from this year, we are developing exclusive tailor-made products for this region. About 80 per cent of the products will be tailor-made apart from some models launched globally," he said.
The Korean company said it sold 24.4 million phones during the first quarter globally; exceeding the 22 million that Sony Ericsson projected it would sell during the three-month period ended March 31.
Expectations
LG predicted its shipments this quarter will rise more than 20 per cent from the first quarter, which may help the company exceed its annual target of 100 million units.
According to research reports, LG's Viewty and Voyager mobile phones drove up shipments 54 per cent and have overtaken Sony Ericsson as the fourth-largest vendor. Its lineup of touchscreen and multimedia models will probably help the Korean company overtake Motorola as the industry's third-largest producer this year.
LG Electronics expects to sell 10 million handsets this year, an increase of 100 per cent compared to five million handsets last year. In the first quarter it sold two million units.
"We are putting a lot of resources on our mobile phone business. Our handset sales have recorded over 100 per cent growth in 2006 and 2007. But when compared to the leaders, we are still at the lower end as we entered the market six years late compared to others," Kim said.
The firm expects to launch 18 models this year, one or two models on an average every month.
He said it will provide a couple of extra features in every handset compared to Nokia.
"It will take at least six months for our competitors to copy our features. It is a secret and I cannot disclose it now," he said.
"This year we will launch more 3G, HSDPA models as customers have started to recognise the benefits of 3G. The demand is expected to grow tremendously this year. Customers are very conservative and they need some awareness. Once it is done the growth will be tremendous in the region. We are in talks with telephone operators to create more awareness among customers about the benefits of the application," he said.
LG enjoys about four per cent market share in top-end mobile phone segment and it is targeting 10 per cent market share this year.
"Our strategy for this year is to fortify our commercial business with our partners. In short term we do not see big results, but in long-term, we see a huge success," he said.
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